About the Author

The author was born in 1951 and raised in Makkah Al Mukarramah until he was 18. His family dwelling was next to Al-Haram As-Shareef (now located inside Al-Haram As-Shareef); his families used to live in Makkah Al Mukarramah and serve Hajjis and he performed Hajj around 50 times. Therefore, he holds some firm observations about Hajj rituals and errors made by pilgrims leading to overcrowding and dangers to their lives. For 12 years (starting at the age of 4), he received Quranic education in Al-Haram As-Shareef (Mosque), next to holy Ka’aba. It was a rare golden opportunity; he is very thankful to Allah for this. After completing his Quranic education, although he attended Al-Falah School (a public school), he continued his education in Al-Haram As-Shareef, studying Quran, Tafsir, Fiqh, Hadeeth and Arabic language between Maghrib and Isha. He studied Tafsir Ibn Kathir under top scholars in Al-Haram As- Shareef. At the same time, he studied Hadeeth Shareef, e.g., Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Sunan Abu Dawood and An-Nisai. He studied Kutub ul-Fiqh under top scholars also. He studied many other books of poetry and learned the beauty of Arabic language and the basics of the relationship between Arabic and the interpretation of the Quran.

This was followed by his higher education in engineering in which he got a BSc from Riyadh University and then MSc and a Ph.D. from Oklahoma University, Norman, Oklahoma, USA. He is a Professor of Civil Engineering at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah. He is very active in Islamic education and has been continuing his participation in the study of Islam. He wrote and published several books and many articles on Hajj and Al-Haramain (solving overcrowding and water supply) and the holy places – Haram Shareef, Makkah Al Mukarramah, Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah. He is the principal investigator in Ain-Zubaida Project. Ain-Zubaida is a landmark project that supplied water to the pilgrims for nearly twelve hundred years. He is still carrying on publishing books/articles/endowments – some are published and some in progress. Most of his publications are related to civil engineering work and Islamic issues of Hajj and Awqaaf (endowment).